Information portals such as web-based news sites typically obtain their content from limited sources such as newswires and employees/guest columnists. Such sites may lag in presenting breaking news due to factors such as employees responsible for posting content having left for the day and/or content approval processes which require a supervisor to review material before it is posted to the portal. Additionally, certain types of content of interest to subscribers may never appear on the portal, such as controversial or politically sensitive information and stories critical of site sponsors.
While visitors to news sites may be given the ability to comment on particular articles, they are typically not permitted to submit their own news or pointers to articles on other sites. To the extent that user submissions are permitted, they are typically solicited in the manner of a suggestion box, rather than by allowing users to input information directly into the production database or other infrastructure used to maintain and present the official site stories. One reason for not accepting or soliciting user supplied content is that rather than submitting actual content, unscrupulous individuals may attempt to leverage the popularity of the portal for financial gain such as by directing traffic to advertising and other self promotional material (e.g. spamming). Similarly, well intentioned visitors may inadvertently clutter the portal such as with duplicate content. Thus, it would be desirable to have improved methods of receiving content contributions.